Never Let Me Go
by rikate41319
Summary: OS An alternate confrontation between Rick and Kate is Always. In which Castle answers when Ryan calls him. I really suck at summaries. But give it a shot :)


**This is a short OS alternate confrontation between Kate and Rick in always; pretending that Castle didn't have to be at Alexis' graduation. **

**Synopsis: Ryan calls Castle to ask him what he should do after Espo and Kate leave to find Maddox, with an alternate confrontation between Kate and Rick.**

**I Don't Own Anything.**

Sitting in his office with a full glass of scotch and the rest of the bottle next to it, Richard Castle continues to stare at the blank word document on his laptop. He's actually thankful when the familiar buzzing of his phone goes off. Peeling his eyes away from the mocking curser on the document to see who's calling him – Detective Ryan.

His heart immediately drops, and worry takes over even though his head tells him he's angry and shouldn't care, his heart says otherwise. He needs to know what's going on, so he answers.

"_Castle.." _His concern evident in his voice.

"_Where the hell are you?! Look I don't know what happened with you and Beckett but you gotta help her..she's gone off the rails, and she's taking Espo with her," _Ryan replies full of anger but his voice betrays him at his voice shakes near the end.

"_Look, let me put it this way, you, Montgomery and Beckett's Father have got it all wrong, I can't stop her, she won't listen to me."_

"_Bro, she won't listen to anyone! I don't know what to do here."_

"_What should a detective do?"_

"_I can't tell Gate's! They'll get suspended, or fired!"_

"_We – You have to stop her, best way to do that is with authority and giving her no other options, she'll be pissed, but at least she'll be alive to be pissed."_

"_Alright...I'm on it. And Castle, you should be there – "_

"_Beckett and I are through. Good luck," _and with that Rick ended the phone call, regretting it instantaneously. Like his Mother said, love isn't a switch he can't just shut it off. No matter how hurt he is, he still cares for her safety. Looking at the blank television screen in front of him, he brings it to life by touching the screen, and just stares at the picture of her. _God, I love her so much, _he thinks to himself; bringing his hand up again to touch the picture to reveal the horrible mess that has driven them apart.

With a heavy sigh he clicks the file and moves it to the trash bin on the screen – _File Deleted._

As he returns to his empty document and soon to be empty bottle of scotch his phone goes off again to alert him of a text message from Ryan, the address of where they were going, and that he's got swat on their way.

"_Dammit," _he muttered quietly to himself as he downed the glass of scotch before grabbing his coat and running out the door. No matter how hurt he was, he at least needed to know she was alive.

-x-

Castle got the taxi driver to drop him off around the corner from the address despite the fact he had no umbrella to protect himself from the massive downpour. As he walked toward the scene he saw Ryan and Esposito clearly arguing, a very pissed off Captain yelling into her phone, and an ambulance. _Oh god. _

Unconsciously, he began to pick up his pace until he saw her, Kate Beckett. This brought him to an abrupt stop. As he stood there watched her, clearly shaken, he could tell even from a distance by the way her one arm was wrapped tightly around her stomach and the fact she was pacing as she fiddled with her cell phone, his brain told him _'she's alive, now turn around a leave'_. But his feet refused to move, he just stared at her in the rain, as she put her phone to her ear. When his phone went off playing its ringtone rather loudly he dug it out of his pocket to see her face light up his screen. And as he looked up to where Kate was, she was staring back at him.

In that one look, all the anger inside him melted away. Her eyes held so much sadness and pain that the second she put the pone back in her pocket and began making her way towards him his feet were back in motion propelling him forward.

As they got closer Kate moved faster, and when there was no distance their bodies came crashing together as she clung to him tighter than the rooftop.

"_I'm so sorry Castle. So so sorry. I'm so sorry, please forgive me, I'm so sorry Rick," _she repeated over and over as she cried and tightened her grip on his jacket and ducked her head into the crook of his neck.

Castle held her just as tight and softly stroked her hair as she cried out all her apologies. _"It's okay, you're okay, shhh," _he softly spoke as he kissed her temple.

She pulled back then, just enough to see his face. She raised her right hand to cup his face, watching his eyes close and his hand come to cover hers. He held it to his face before intertwining their finger and kissing her hand as it's laced with his.

Without opening his eyes he felt her mouth ghost over his as her tangled his free hand in her hair their lips met with all the passion built over the past four years.

Castle ended the kiss for some much needed oxygen; keeping their foreheads together he wanted to try again, telling her how he feels.

"_Kate, I – "_He started but was stopped by her slender finger against his lips.

She pulled back far enough to look him in the eyes. And he watched as a glorious smile spread across her beautiful face._ "I know you do," _moving her hand from his lips to the nape of his neck,_ "and I love you too, more than anything," _her voice breaking with so much emotion.

And as his smile matched hers he brought her lips back to his. With every chance Kate got during the kiss she'd repeat over and over _"I love you". _Castle's response was to tighten the embrace, with no intentions of ever letting her go.

FIN.

**Mind checking if that blue button bellow is working? I'd really appreciate it **** xx**


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